Place : The Women's Club of Minneapolis
410 Oak Grove St, Minneapolis, MN 55403
Please Join
The Isles Ensemble,
The Woman’s Club of Minneapolis,
& Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church for a
Benefit Concert
Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church, the musical home of The Isles Ensemble will once again
co-sponsor a benefit concert for Ukraine with The Women’s Club of Minneapolis.
The ensemble will perform chamber music by Ukranian composers and will feature guest speaker, Ambassador Eric Rubin, President, American Foreign Service Association.
This year all funds will be received through Lake of the Isles distributed between three causes:
The Protez Foundation, was established in 2022 by Minnesota-based Ukrainian doctor, Yakov Gradinar, to provide prosthetics for Ukrainians. Protez is the Ukrainian word for prosthesis. The goal of the project is to help Ukrainian children, civilians, and soldiers who have lost limbs during the war, to get free quality prosthetics in the USA and improve their quality of life. The foundation covers all financial needs for a person to get prosthetics; visa fees, lodging, and the prosthetics. Once in the USA, volunteers host patients and help with basic orientation, logistics, and psychological support. They have hosted over 82 groups of patients in the last few months, and the need is ongoing and tremendous.
Ukranian American Community Center (UACC) coordinates Refugee programs and local efforts to support refugees escaping the war in Ukraine. The center is partnering with the Department of Human Services, and a variety of public and private organizations to coordinate and develop refugee programs in the State of Minnesota. They have successfully organized Back to School campaigns for refugee children, and the Adopt a Family campaign to provide mothers in need with MetroTransit Passes, a mattress, a blanket, bedding, towels, and mats. Today their largest needs include emergency housing assistance, summer programs for children so mothers can continue to work, and driver’s license training.
Caritas – Transcarpathia, The Christian Charitable Foundation is a non-profit NGO operating in Ukraine since 1998. It currently provides services to 22 persons with special needs (Autism, Down Syndrome, Asperger’s Syndrome, and physical disabilities). They are a vulnerable population in peacetime, but even more so in times of war. After the loss of their parents, children with special needs usually end up being locked up in mental institutions. In spite of the ongoing war, Caritas is in the process of building an assisted living facility where children will receive assistance from social workers and volunteers. When completed, this will be the first community home of its type in the region and only the second one in Ukraine. It will provide decent living conditions, dignity, and quality of life for some of the most vulnerable.